I have a sewing pattern that I'm wanting to digitize. I have scanned in a hand drawing in 2 sections, put them together with layers, decreased opacity of the layers so I could see what I'm drawing, and then drawn the outside lines which consist of straight lines and bezier curves, plus a half circle - all of these enclosing to form a single object. I would like to have another line drawn 1/4" inside the outside line except for on one side (where there is a long straight line). I had previously figured out how to get 1/4" inset lines for the whole object, but after not touching it for a few weeks, I can't even get it to do that anymore. I just end up with some new lines drawn across the object, which I don't need. I'm getting rather confused, although I'm also a total newbie to vector drawing, so that doesn't help. I'm a programmer, but not a graphic design artist.

I *might* not be getting my half circle added to the path correctly... I know I had trouble with that before. Am I even making sense?

boscopup wrote:I had previously figured out how to get 1/4" inset lines for the whole object, but after not touching it for a few weeks, I can't even get it to do that anymore.

The paths offset command is what you're looking for here.

boscopup wrote:Am I even making sense?

It might help if you can show us a picture.

Ok, here's some images...

The faded lines are the scanned in pattern. The thick black lines are the lines I drew in Inkscape, consisting of straight lines on top, bottom, and left side, Bezier curves on the bottom portion and right side, and a half circle on the top right.

<deleted image>

And here is what happens when I try any of the Inset/Ofset commands in the Paths menu.

<deleted image>

It has something to do with that half circle.

That's odd. Have you drawn this shape all as one line?

If you can post the SVG file I'd be happy to take a closer look.

It's not one line. I started out with the left and top lines, then appended the bottom and right lines/curves. Then I did a circle and tried to attach that to the path. I think that's where I run into the problem is getting the circle to attach to the existing path. I'm just not sure how to do that.

You'll need to convert the circle to a path (Path > Object to path). You can then delete a side off the circle. You can also then join the nodes of the circle to the node of the main path.

This guide might help you get to know how to do these things.

Oh, that guide REALLY helped! Thank you!!! I have it bookmarked for next time I forget.

My object is now one path all the way around (not only was it not attached at the half circle area, but it also wasn't attached at the bottom left corner), and with the help of that offset page you linked to, I got my offset working (took me a while to notice that it says you have to turn on the node tool to see the offset handle). Once I had my offset, I deleted the segment of the inner offset that's on the left, then dragged the remaining end nodes to the left side of the original path. Now it is exactly how I want it.

Thanks so much!!!

Nice work. That's exactly how I would have done it. Glad I could help.